The present invention relates generally to online commerce, and more particularly to computer-implemented intelligently determining buying online and picking up in store based on commute patterns of connections in a social network and store parameters.
There are two common scenarios for online shopping. In one scenario, items purchased online are shipped from stores; in another scenario, items purchased online are picked up in stores by online shoppers. Nowadays, buying online and picking up in store has been popular. Online shoppers purchase merchandise from stores' websites and pick up in selected stores. For buying online and picking up in store, a seller commits to an online shopper that an item purchased online is ready to be picked up in a specific store and at a specific time. Generally, a shopper inputs a zip code or a list of stores for pickup, and an ecommerce system calculates availability accordingly.